Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

A Physician Questions Role of "CanadaCare" in Death of Richardson

A Chicago-area physician named Cory Franklin speculates about the role that so-called CanadaCare medical care may have had in Natasha's Richardson's death. This was originally published by the Chicago Tribune and appears in today's NY Post.

"Richardson's evaluation required an immediate CT scan for diagnosis -- followed by either a complete removal of accumulated blood by a neurosurgeon or a procedure by a trauma surgeon or emergency physician to relieve the pressure and allow her to be transported.

But Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts is a town of 9,000 people. Its hospital doesn't have specialized neurology or trauma services. It hasn't been reported whether the hospital has a CT scanner, but CT scanners are less common in Canada.

Compounding the problem, Quebec has no helicopter services to trauma centers in Montreal. Richardson was transferred by ambulance to Hospital du Sacre-Coeur, a trauma center 50 miles away in Montreal -- a further delay of over an hour.

Because she didn't arrive at a facility capable of treatment (with the diagnosis perhaps still unknown) until six hours after the injury, in all likelihood by that time the pressure buildup was fatal. The Montreal hospital could not have saved her life"

Dr. Franklin was/is Director of and Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Cook County Hospital, Chicago.

Wrap Rage: The Scourge of the Holidays Blamed on Clamshell Packaging

"I've worked in the emergency department on Christmas day for six out of the last 10 years. We certainly see lacerations. That's the most common thing. But we also see punctures," said David Ross, DO, an emergency physician at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo. He also is a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. "That clamshell packaging is absolutely diabolical."

That's an excerpt from an article in today's AMNews entitled "Ho Ho Woes: Wrap Rage Results in Lacerations and Bad Tempers."  According to this article, the evil clamshell packaging lands 6,000 people in emergency rooms each year for punctures and lacerations. But there's hope: As they point out in this article, and as Healthsifter found out the other day, Amazon and Mattel have teamed up to produce "frustration-free packaging." I immediately ordered one for my nephew. He'll like the toy, my brother- and sister-in-law will be relieved that they don't need a blade to get the thing open. 

Autism and Vaccines: Autism One Conference, Chicago

AMEDnews reports evenhandedly on the Autism One conference, which was held in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend.One of the featured speakers was Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician whose 1998 paper in The Lancet claimed an association between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism in 12 kids. But this is what's happened since then, quoting from AMEDNews:

"Every so often, a small study such as the one conducted by Dr. Wakefield comes along to buttress that belief. In this case, the momentum has held, even though 10 of the 13 authors on the 1998 paper published a statement inThe Lancet in 2004 retracting the original interpretation that their data indicated a causal link between MMR and autism, and Dr. Wakefield faces significant professional scrutiny."

That is, Dr. Wakefield is in danger of losing his license to practice. In June, the UK health authorities declared that measles is now endemic in that country and confirmed a recent measles-related death. In the US, measles rates are at their highest since 2001. It's more than spots: encephalitis and pneumonia are just two possible complications.

Damage done.

Gymastics Injuries in Kids

Gymnastics is the leading cause of sports-related injuries in girls, according to a report in the new issue of the journal Pediatrics. This study was conducted among more than 400,000 kids seen in emergency departments for the treatment of gymnastics-related injuries in the United States between 1990 and 2005. There were an average of 26,600 injuries each year, for a rate of 4.8 per 1000 children. Injuries took place primarily in school (40%) or a place of recreation (39.7%). The upper extremities accounted for 42% of injuries, and sprains strains occurred in 42% of those injured, while 30% had fractures. In this series the good news was that more than 97% of kids went home from the emergency department--not to inpatient admissions.

Hangover Cure Video

I was skeptical about this hangover cure video and text, but it's actually right on the money. And here's more than you ever wanted to know about the science of hangovers. These two sites disagree slightly about the medications you could use to treat a hangover, but they both agree that you should avoid acetaminophen, the active ingredient in many products for headaches, pain, and head colds, including Tylenol. Do not take an acetaminophen-containing product when you've been drinking or if you have a chronic drinking problem. The combination of booze and acetaminophen can cause serious liver damage.

Medical Emergencies on Airplanes Increasing

Four rings on the airplane chime--that's a signal to the flight crew that a passenger is having a medical emergency. You may it more often in the future. According to a story in USA Today, medical emergencies on airplanes are growing in frequency. The paper commissioned research by a group called Medaire. Some of the findings:

New CPR Saves More Lives

You'll be hearing more about the new CPR, or Minimally Interrupted Cardiac Resuscitation (MICR), described in an article from Journal Watch and in another from Reuters. The new technique, which consists of a couple of series of 200 chest compressions before you even start thinking about getting oxygen into the lungs, tripled the survival rate among people who had cardiac arrest outside of a hospital. Good stuff.
The original research appears in the current issue of JAMA.